THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 


THE  COLLECTION  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINLVNA 

PRESENTED  BY 

B.    G.   Hall 


C378 

UK3 
189B,1 


00039136461 

This  book  must  not 
be  token  from  the 
Library  building. 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcliive 

in  2010  witli  funding  from 

University  of  Nortli  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://www.archive.org/details/wholemanbaccalauOOmoor 


THE  WHOLE  MAN 

BACCALAUREATE  SERMON 


Preached  at  the  XlNiVERbixY  of  North 

Carolina,  Chapel  Hill,  N.  C, 

May  81st,  1891. 


BY 

PROF.  W.  W.  AOORE    D.  D. 


PUBLISHED   BY    REQUEST. 


wilmington,  n.  c.  : 

Jackson  &  Bell,  Steam  Printers  and  Binders. 

i8qi. 


The  Whole  Man. 


I. 

The  reign  of  Solomon  marks  the  culmination 
of  Israel's  material  prosperity.  Inheriting  from 
his  warlike  father  a  wide  and  fertile  domain, 
and  having  no  occasion  nor  desire  for  further 
conquests,  he  inaugurated  a  different  policy  from 
that  of  his  predecessors,  under  which  the  land 
teemed  with  plenty  and  the  people  dwelt  in 
peace.  He  was  the  first  of  Israel's  rulers  to 
break  over  that  exclusiveness  which  is  one  of  the 
most  inveterate  traits  of  the  Hebrew  race  and  to 
establish  cordial  relations  with  the  external 
world.  By  his  alliances  with  foreign  powers  and 
his  expeditions  to  foreign  lands  he  created  for  the 
only  time  in  Jewish  history  a  flourishing  com- 
merce. His  fleets  sailed  from  harbors  on  the 
Red  sea  as  well  as  on  the  Mediterranean,  and  re- 
turning poured  into  Palestine  the  products  of  all 
lands  from  the  ivory  of  India  to  the  silver  of 
Spain.  Of  gold  alone  he  received  every  year  a 
quantity  valued  at  more  ]than  ;^3o,ocx),ooo,  while 
the  taxes  upon  traders  and  the   tribute  of  vassal 


4 

princes  swelled  his  income  to  well  nigh  fabulous 
figures.  He  made  silver  to  be  as  stones  in  Jeru- 
salem, and  the  costly  cedar  as  the  common  syca- 
more for  abundance.  In  view  of  the  great  build- 
ings with  which  he  adorned  his  capital,  he  might 
have  anticipated  the  boast  of  Augustus  Caesar, 
who  said  that  he  found  Rome  a  city  of  brick  and 
left  it  a  city  of  marble.  The  queen  of  Sheba,  ac- 
customed though  she  was  to  the  enormous  wealth 
of  an  oriental  court,  was  overwhelmed  at  the 
sight  of  Solomon's  Temple  and  viaduct  and  his 
multitude  of  attendants  in  costly  apparel.  He 
imported  large  numbers  of  swift  and  beautiful 
horses,  and  organized  a  force  of  fourteen  hundred 
chariots  and  twelve  thousand  cavalry-men,  as 
much  for  display  no  doubt  as  for  defence.  Jose- 
phus,  the  Jewish  historian,  gives  us  a  lively  picture 
of  the  king's  mounted  body  guard,  composed  of 
tall  and  handsome  young  men,  armed  as  archers, 
clothed  in  Tyrian  purple,  their  flowing  hair 
sprinkled  with  gold  dust,  which  glittered  in  the 
sunlight  as  they  swept  along  the  highway.  In 
the  midst  of  this  truly  royal  retinue  rode  Solo- 
mon himself,  clad  in  pure  white  and  occupying  a 
chariot  of  unexampled  splendor.  In  all  these 
ways  it  was  that  his  name  became  a  synonym  for 
magnificence.  And  when  our  Saviour  wished  to 
emphasize  the  matchless  beauty  of  the  lilies  he 
could   find  no   comparison  so  suitable  as  "Solo- 


5 

mon  in  all  his  glory"  affirming  that  even  he  was 
not   arrayed  like  one  of  these. 

The  same  divine  teacher  gives  testimony  to 
the  wisdom  of  Solomon.  His  reign  was  not  only 
one  of  material  prosperity,  but  of  intellectual  ac- 
tivity as  well,  the  king  himself  being  the  fore- 
most man  of  letters  in  the  realm.  "He  spake 
three  thousand  proverbs,"  says  the  historian, 
a  portion  of  which  have  undoubtedly  been 
preserved  to  us  in  the  book  of  that  name, 
along  with  proverbs  from  several  other  in- 
spired philosophers.  "His  songs  were  a 
thousand  and  five."  These  have  all  perished, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  two  or  three  which 
may  linger  in  the  Book  of  Psalms.  Nor  were 
his  teachings  confined  to  economic  and  religious 
subjects.  Botany  and  zoology  as  well  received 
the  contributions  of  his  versatile  and  enterprising 
mind. 

In  addition  to  this  secular  grandeur,  ma- 
terial and  intellectual,  there  was  promise  of  spir- 
itual prosperity  also  in  the  earlier  portion  of  his 
reign,  as  evinced  by  his  reverent  recognition  of 
dependence  upon  God,  by  his  erection  of  the 
great  temple  for  his  worship,  and  even  by  the 
solemn  silence  in  which  the  work  was  done — 

'No  sound  of  axe  or  iron  hammer  rung, 

Like  some  tall  palm  the  noiseless  fabric  sprung." 

His  prayer  at  the   dedication  of   the   temple 


breathes  a  spirit  of  true  devotion  and  lofty  spir- 
ituality. 

All  this,  however,  was  only  the  golden  morn- 
ing of  a  day  whose  evening  was  black  with 
clouds  and  whose  sun  sank  amid  the  shadows  of 
apostasy  and  doubt.  Prosperity  is  a  severer  test 
both  of  national  and  individual  character  than 
adversity.  The  transition  from  the  frugal  sim- 
plicity of  earlier  days  to  the  flush  times  which 
followed  the  successful  wars  of  David  and  ac- 
companied the  commercial  expansion  of  Solo- 
mon was  a  grave  crisis  in  the  history  of  Israel. 
And  it  soon  became  evident  that  instead  of  using 
the  larger  wealth  of  this  Augustan  age  for  the 
promotion  of  still  nobler  national  and  religious 
ends,  both  king  and  people  had  been  betrayed 
by  it  into  luxury  and  corruption.  The  three 
most  conspicuous  features  of  his  latter  reign  were 
Polygamy,  Polytheism  and  Despotism,  those 
deadly  foes  of  the  family,  the  church  and  the 
state.  By  his  profligacy,  idolatry  and  tyranny 
Solomon  became  the  great  corrupter  of  Israel 
and  sapped  the  very  foundations  of  their  civil, 
social  and  moral  life. 

His  despotism  undermined  the  national  life  of 
the  people,  invaded  their  ancient  liberties,  and 
reduced  them  from  their  free  citizenship  to  the 
condition  of  oppressed  subjects.  His  multipli- 
cation of  horses  and  chariots  in  violation  of  the 


Mo»aic  law,  his  formation  of  an  expensive  court 
with  its  army  of  attendants,  his  erection  of  costly 
palaces  for  himself  and  his  favorites,  his  acque- 
ducts,  fortresses,  docks  and  navies,  imposed 
upon  the  people  an  enormous  burden  of  taxation. 
•  Think  of  the  outlay  necessary  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  his  foolish  ostentation  and  luxurious 
pomp.  At  the  tables  in  his  palace  there  was 
daily  provision  for  fourteen  thousand  officials. 
In  short,  the  nation  was  enslaved  for  the  glory  of 
the  individual.  This  was  the  oriental  idea  of 
government,  but  it  was  not  God's  idea.  From 
the  beginning  He  had  insisted  upon  a  reversal  of 
the  theory  that  the  king  is  everything  and  the 
people  nothing.  He  had  taught  Israel  that  rulers 
exist  for  the  good  of  the  people  and  not  the 
people  for  the  glory  of  the  ruler.  And  now 
Solomon  scouts  this  great  democratic  thought  of 
God  and  makes  of  Jehovah's  freemen  the  ordinary 
subjects  of  an  oriental  despotism.  No  wonder 
the  mutterings  of  a  storm  were  heard  even  before 
the  close  of  this  ruinous  reign.  No  wonder  that 
storm  burst  upon  the  head  of  Solomon's  son. 

But  further.  Not  only  did  his  despotism  un- 
dermine the  civil  life  of  the  people.  His  poly- 
gamy undermined  their  social  life  as  well.  And 
it  is  after  he  has  formed  his  seraglio  of  a  thou- 
sand idolatrous  women,  whose  gods  are  worship- 
ed with  impure  rites,  that  we  read  in  Proverbs  of 


the  prevailing  licentiousness  in  Jerusalem.  That 
herd  of  strange  women  in  the  palace  were  only 
the  forerunners  of  other  thousands  on  the  streets. 
But  again.  Solomon's  idolatry  undermined 
the  religious  life  of  Israel.  The  sanctuaries  of 
Astarte,  Chemosh  and  Moloch,  were  established 
at  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  immediate  neighborhood 
of  the  temple  of  Jehovah,  while  Solomon  himself 
set  the  example  of  apostasy  to  all  the  people. 

II. 

The  sum,  then,  of  what  we  would  say  about 
Solomon  is  this.  His  possessions  were  as  great, 
and  his  experience  was  as  varied,  as  those  of  any 
man  that  ever  lived  He  had  all  those  things 
that  are  commonly  regarded  as  capable  of  con- 
ferring happiness  upon  their  possessor.  He  had 
genius  and  learning.  He  had  position  and 
power.  He  had  riches  in  unlimited  abundance. 
He  commanded  all  the  sources  of  worldly  pleas- 
ure. Nor  was  the  range  of  his  enjoyment  re- 
stricted by  conscientious  scruples.  Morally,  as 
well  as  otherwise,  he  played  the  whole  gamut. 
He  made  actual  trial  of  every  phase  of  human 
conduct.  He  tried  righteousness  and  he  tried 
iniquity.  He  served  God  and  he  served  Satan. 
He  built  the  temple  and  he  debauched  the  peo- 
ple. Here  are  lights  and  shadows  indeed — such 
as  we  find  in  no  other  single  life. 

Now,  suppose  we  had  the  testimony  of  such  a 


man  as  that,  after  such  an  experience,  as  to 
the  real  ends  of  life,  as  to  what  pursuits 
and  possessions  can  give  true  happiness  to 
man,  would  it  not  be  of  priceless  value  to 
any  young  man  whose  life  still  lay  be- 
fore him  with  all  its  splendid  possibilities?  Sup- 
pose we  had  all  the  wisdom  and  experience 
of  Solomon  packed  into  one  strong,  clear  state- 
ment of  ideal  manhood,  what  a  motto  that  would 
be  for  any  college  boy  to  write  over  his  mantle- 
piece  or  on  the  fly  leaf  of  his  text  book  !  What 
a  rule  of  conduct  that  would  be  for  any  youth  to 
inscribe  upon  his  memory  in  letters  of  light! 
'Suppose"  we  had  it?  Young  gentlemen,  we 
have.  Here  it  is.  "Fear  God  and  keep  His 
commandments,  for  this  is  the  whole  man." 
"Fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments,  for  this 
is  the  whole  man."  Not  learning,  not  power, 
not  wealth,  is  the  true  end  of  life,  the  attainment 
of  which  can  round  out  to  perfection,  your 
character  and  happiness,  but  to  fear  God  and 
keep  His  commandments.  This  is  the  utmost 
output  of  the  observation  and  experience  of  Sol- 
omon. This  is  the  supreme  exploit  of  his  wis- 
dom. 

Mr.  H.  Rider  Haggard,  a  strangely  popular 
novelist  of  our  time,  in  writing  of  books  which 
have  influenced  him,  says  there  is  one  immortal 
work  which  has   moved  him  more   deeply  than 


lO 

any  other,  "a  work  that  utters  all  the  world's 
yea'rning  anguish  and  disillusionment  in  one 
sorrow- laden  and  bitter  cry,  and  whose  stately 
music  thrills  like  the  voice  of  pines  heard  in  the 
darkness  of  a  midnight  gale."  Do  you  know 
what  book  that  is  ?  It  is  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes ; 
and  the  upshot  and  climax  of  Ecclesiastes  is  in 
the  1 2th  chapter  and  13th  verse.  "  Let  us  hear 
the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter ;  Fear  God 
and  keep  His  commandments,  for  this  is  the 
whole  man."  And  I  would,  young  gentlemen, 
that  every  man  of  you  would  ponder  this  mighty 
statement  until  you  shall  see  how  it  transmutes 
that  mournful  minor  strain  of  the  mere  worldling 
into  the  jubilate  of  the  child  of  God,  and  sweeps 
the  soul  not  with  midnight  gales  and  dreary 
storms,  but  with  sweet  and  bracing  airs  from 
heaven,  which  shall  eventually  carry  all  clouds 
from  the  sky  and  flood  the  spirit  with  everlasting 
sunlight. 

III. 

If  such  be  the  potency  of  .this  truth,  it  is  well 
worth  our  -^hile  to  try  to  learn  itj  and  to  this  end 
will  you  not  give  me  your  careful  attention  for  a 
few  moments  while  we  endeavor  to  arrive  at  the 
exact  meaning  of  the  terms  here  used  ? 

The  word  "  fear"  is  employed  in  the  Bible  in  two 
widely  different  senses.  Sometimes  it  expresses  a 
feeling  of  terror  and  hostility ;  at  other  times  it  ex- 


II 


presses  a  feeling  of  reverence  and  attachment. 
By  "the  fear  of  God"  is  sometimes  meant  a 
slavish  dread  of  the  Divine  Being  regarded  as  an 
enemy,  while  at  other  times  it  means  a  filial  feel- 
ing full  of  loyalty  and  love. 

Since  the  same  word  is  used  of  two  opposite 
dispositions  there  would  seem  to  be  danger  of 
confounding  them.  But  there  is  a  criterion  by 
which  we  can  infallibly  discriminate  between 
them.  The  spurious  fear  which  is  essentially 
hostile  to  God,  seeks  only  to  escape  His  wrath. 
The  genuine  fear  which  is  essentially  loyal  to 
God,  seeks  to  do  His  loill  from  hearty  acqui- 
esence  in  it.  The  spurious  fear  dreads  only  the 
punishment  of  sin.  The  genuine  fear  dreads  sin 
itself.  That  is,  to  tear  God  truly  is  to  serve  God. 
The  fear  of  God  and  the  doing  of  His  command 
ments  are  inseparable.  Hence  the  two  things  are 
put  together  by  the  psalmist  when  he  says, 
"Blessed  is  the  man  that  feareth  the  Lord, 
that  delighteth  greatly  in  His  commandments. 
And  so  in  our  text,  too,  we  find  them  joined, 
"Fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments."  One 
is  the  root.  The  other  is  the  fruit.  As  Thain 
Davidson  says :  "The  fear  ot  God  in  the  Old 
Testament  answers  to  'Faith  in  God'  in  the  New; 
and  this  exhortation  to  the  principle  and  prac- 
tice of  true  religion  to  what  the  apostles  call 
'Faith  and  Works.'  "     Both  are   necessary.     Dr 


12 

Guthrie  has  somewhere  compared  a  mere  pro- 
fession to  a  tree  lying  across  your  path  with  the 
bark  unbroken.  You  put  your  foot  on  it  and 
instantly  it  breaks  through.  Insects  and  poison- 
ous fungi  have  eaten  out  the  heart.  So  with  a 
man  who  says  he  fears  God  but  does  not  keep 
His  commandments.  He  is  not  sound.  There  is 
corruption  at  the  core  of  him.  He  is  a  mere 
pretence  of  a  man  in  God's  sense.  He  is  no 
more  a  whole  man  than  a  rotten  log  is  a  whole 
tree.  And  this  brings  us  to  our  third  point  as 
to  the  terms  of  the  text : 

"Fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments  for 
this  is  the  whole  man."  Have  you  noticed  that 
I  leave  out  a  word  as  I  read  that  familiar  pas- 
sage ?  The  English  version  reads  thus:  "Fear 
God  and  keep  His  commandments  for  this  is  the 
whole  (iw^?/ of  man."  But  if  you  will  examine 
your  Bibles,  you  will  see  that  the  word  "duty"  is 
printed  in  Italics,  indicating  that  it  is  not  in  the 
original  but  has  been  inserted  by  the  translators, 
and  like  many  other  insertions  in  the  English 
Bible,  it  is  enfeebling  and  misleading.  What  the 
English  version  says  is  true,  but  it  falls  far  short 
of  the  sublime  statement  of  the  original — "Fear 
God  and  keep  His  commandments,  for  this  is  the 
whole  man."  "Fear  God" — that's  the  inward 
principle,  "and  keep  His  commandments" — thit's 
the    outward  practice,   "for    this    is   the  whole 


13 

man."  This  principle  of  faith  and  this  practice 
of  obedience  make  up  the  whole  man,  the  ideal 
man,  man  in  his  entirety,  as  he  came  from  the 
hands  of  his  Creator,  bearing  the  image  of  his 
God,  and  no  living  creature  is  a  whole  man  unless 
he  does  fear  God  and  keep  His  commandments. 
This  is  but  another  way  of  saying  that  religion 
is  essential  to  manhood.  Without  it  no  human 
being  is  a  man  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word. 
He  may  have  genius  and  learning  and  position 
and  power  and  possessions,  but  unless  he  has 
religion  he  is  not  a  whole  man. 
IV. 

The  next  witness  to  this  truth,  whose  testi- 
mony we  cite,  is  the  English  language  itself 
The  word  "whole',  is  radically  the  same  as  the 
word  "holy."  The  words  "heal,"  "health," 
"hale,"  "whole"  and  "holy"  are  all  fundamentally 
the  same.  The  "whole"  man  then  is  the  "holy" 
man.  And  no  man  is  "whole"  who  isn't  holy. 
Here  we  have  the  testimony  of  the  English  race 
to  the  great  truth  that  in  order  to  perfect  man- 
hood the  spiritual  nature  must  be  sound.  The 
very  choice  of  the  word  "holy"  to  express  the 
highest  spirituality  proves  it. 

To  be  "whole"  in  the  physical  sense  is  to  be 
well,  and  when  in  the  Gospels  diseased  persons 
are  said  to  have  been  made  whole  by  the  power 
of  Christ  it   means   that  they  were   restored   to 


^4 

sound  health.  A  man  whose  limbs  are  paral- 
yzsd  or  whose  hands  are  eaten  away  by  leprosy, 
cannot  be  called  a  whole  man,  such  a  man  as 
came  from  the  hands  of  the  Creator  when  he  saw 
the  work  which  he  had  made  and  pronounced  it 
very  good.  A  mental  imbecile  cannot  be  called 
a  whole  man,  for  practically  he  has  no  intellec- 
tual faculties.  Nor  can  a  man  who  disregards 
God  and  disobeys  His  law  be  called  a  whole 
man,  for  his  spiritual  nature  is  diseased  so  that 
his  moral  powers  do  not  perform  their  functions 
aright.  But  a  man  who  does  fear  God  and  keep 
His  commandments  is  a  whole  man,  for  by  com- 
mon consent  we  call  him  holy. 

Now  this  question  arises,  if  man  has  a  physi- 
cal, an  intellectual  and  a  moral  nature,  is  not  the 
soundness  and  healthful  activity  of  each  nature 
essential  to  a  whole  man?  Undoubtedly.  A 
sound  body,  in  which  there  is  a  diseased  mind 
or  a  depraved  soul,  is  not  a  man.  Such  a  creature 
is  only  a  strong  and  handsome  animal.  Absa- 
lom was  beautiful  and  John  L.  Sullivan  is  strong  ; 
but  is  either  of  them  your  ideal  of  manhood  ? 
There  is  the  physical  completeness  without  the 
spiritual.  A  brilliant  intellect  joined  to  a  feeble 
body,  or  an  imbruited  conscience,  is  not  a  whole 
man.  Alex.  H.  Stephens  was  a  gifted  statesman, 
but,  with  his  shrivelled  body,  is  he  your  ideal 
man  ?     There   was  the  intellectual  completeness 


15 

without  the  physical.  There  died  in  England  a 
few  months  ago  a  member  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment by  the  name  of  Arthur  Kavanagh,  who  was 
born  without  either  arms  or  legs,  and  who, 
nevertheless,  achieved  splendid  success  in  life. 
But  with  all  our  admiration  for  his  great  talents, 
his  high  character,  and  his  iron  will,  no  one  of 
us  would  call  him  a  whole  man.  There  too  was 
the  intellectual  completeness  without  the  physi- 
cal. Voltaire  was  a  genius,  but  can  you  call  a 
creature  with  such  a  soul  in  him  a  true  man  ? 
There  was  the  intellectual  completeness  without 
the  spiritual. 

But,  some  one  will  say,  how  about  a  sound 
spirit  allied  to  a  diseased  body  or  mind?  How 
about  a  soul  that  does  fear  God  and  keep  His 
commandments  and  yet  inhabits  an  emaciated 
and  feeble  frame  ?  Is  such  an  one  a  whole  man  ? 
We  answer — yes,  potentially  he  is.  For  that 
soundness  of  spirit  will  eventually  carry  with  it 
soundness  of  body  and  soundness  of  mind,  and 
these  together  constitute  the  whole  man,  man  as  he 
was  when  he  came  from  the  hand  of  his  Maker, 
man  as  he  shall  be  when  he  reaches  Paradise 
restored,  and  wears  again  in  its  fullness  the  lost 
image  of  God.  But,  mark  you,  the  converse  is 
not  true.  It  does  not  follow  that  a  man  with  a 
whole  body  or  a  whole  mind  will  one  day  have  a 
whole  spirit.     But  a  man  who  is  a  child  of  God 


i6 

— a  man  who  is  sound  of  soul — will  eventually 
be  sound  of  body  and  of  mind.  His  body  will 
be  raised  in  incorruption  and  his  mind  will  re- 
ceive an  expansion  never  dreamed  of  in  this  life. 
So  that  the  English-speaking  races  made  no  mis- 
take, theologically  or  otherwise,  when  they  called 
the  man  whose  soul  was  sound  the  holy  man, 
that  is  the  whole  man. 

The  same  truth  has  been  embodied  in  two 
other  common  words  of  our  language,  viz:  right 
and  wrong.  Right  means  straight.  Wrong 
means  wrung.  By  sin  the  soul  of  man  is  wrung, 
twisted,  distorted,  crooked  not  straight,  deformed 
not  symmetrical,  diseased  not  whole.  When 
Richter  said  that  every  language  was  "a  diction- 
ary of  faded  me-aphors,"  he  was  right.  But  it 
would  mightily  promote  our  spiritual  health  to 
get  the  color  back  into  some  of  them,  and  to  see 
how  these  words  in  daily  use  by  all  men  confirm 
the  truths  of  scripture  and  experience.  "Fear 
God  and  keep  His  commandments  for  this  is  the 
whole  man."  So  says  language.  So  says  Sol- 
omon. So  says  God.  "Be  ye  therefore  perfect, 
as  your  Father  in  Heaven  is  perfect."  As  your 
Father  in  Heaven  is  perfect — assimilation  to  Him 
then  is  the  measure  of  perfection  ?  Yes.  That 
is  holiness,  wholeness,  completeness,  perfectness. 
"Be  ye  therefore  perfect"  is  the  same  as  to  say 
"Be  ye  therefore  holy." 


17 

V. 

But,  young  gentlemen,  how  difficult  it  is  to 
realize  an  abstract  ideal !  How  hard  it  is  to  make 
something  that  you  have  never  seen — something 
of  which  you  have  had  only  a  description.  Sup- 
pose that  Mr.  Jefferson,  when  planning  the  Uni- 
versity of  Virginia,  had  said  to  a  contractor :  "I 
want  you  to  build  a  library  exactly  like  the 
"Roman  Pantheon,"  and  when  the  contractor 
asked  for  drawings,  suppose  Mr.  Jefferson  had 
answered,  "Oh,  drawings  are  not  necessary,  I 
will  give  you  a  full  description  of  it."  Do  you 
think  the  contractor  would  have  undertaken  it  ? 
It  might  have  been  possible  to  do  such  a  thing, 
but  it  would  certainly  not  have  been  easy  to 
build  that  house  from  a  mere  description.  How 
much  better  to  have  full  drawings  of  the  proposed 
building.  A  complete  model  of  it  would  have 
been  better  still.  And  best  of  all,  if  such  a  thing 
were  possible,  would  have  been  the  Pantheon 
itself  standing  before  him,  so  that  every  detail  of 
the  work  might  be  determined  by  and  compared 
with  the  original.  Now  as  it  is  with  the  archi- 
tect of  the  material  building,  so  it  is  with  man  as 
the  architect  of  his  own  character.  Besides  ab- 
stract instructions  he  needs  a  model  to  work  to. 
He  needs  a  pattern  to  go  by.  He  needs  an  em- 
bodiment of  his  ideal.  Can  any  such  model  be 
found  ?     Is  there  any  such  embodiment   of  ideal 


i8 

manhood  in  the  universe?  Yes,  there  is.  Not 
in  any  of  this  world's  heroes  however.  Not  even 
in  George  Washington,  though  Mr.  Everett,  in 
his  celebrated  oration,  did  try  to  indicate  his 
character  by  describing  a  perfect  circle  with  his 
finger  in  the  air,  for  while  he  ivas.  a  man  of  unu- 
sual symmetry  and  poise,  there  is  one  authentic 
case  of  a  public  outburst  of  temper  and  profanity 
— and  many  a  sin  besides.  No,  Washington  was 
a  sinner,  and  Cicero,  and  Seneca,  and  Paul  and 
Moses.  Is  there  anywhere  an  incarnation  of 
ideal  m^mhood  ?  Yes,  there  is.  In  that  one 
whose  fear  of  God  and  whose  obedience  to  His 
commandments  were  perfect,  and  who  is  there- 
fore the  holy  man,  the  whole  man,  the  perfect 
man,  the  ideal  man,  man  at  his  best,  man  as  he 
was  when  he  left  his  Creator's  hands,  and  who 
is  therefore  called  the  second  Adam,  and  who 
calls  himself  by  the  title  of  "Son  of  Mau"  more 
frequently  than  by  any  other  because,  as  Lid- 
don  says.  He  would  teach  the  fact  that  "He  is 
the  representative  or  ideal  man  the  one  son  of 
our  race  who  is  not  unworthy  of  its  high  origin, 
in  whom  its  original  idea  is  perfectly  realized." 
VI. 
But  notice.  The  very  fact  that  he  is  unique — 
the  very  fact  that  in  the  whole  history  of  the 
human  race  there  has  been  but  one  perfect  man 
— but  one  who  filled  to  completeness  the  outline 


19 

of  God's  ideal — proves  that  there  is  something 
radically  wrong  with  the  rest  of  us.  There  is. 
Indeed  there  is.  That  desperate  and  universal 
malady  which  puts  us  beyond  the  healing  power 
of  any  mere  truth  whether  abstract  or  embodied. 
What  boots  it  to  know  that  the  fear  of  God  and 
obedience  to  His  law  will  make  us  whole  when 
there  is  within  us  an  inborn  antipathy  to  God 
and  a  fatal  gravitation  to  disobedience  ?  What 
boots  it  to  know  that  Christ  is  a  perfect  example 
if  we  have  no  spiritual  power  to  imitate  Him? 
And  so  we  come  to  the  next  great  truth.  Christ 
is  more  than  a  mere  example.  He  is  an  Al- 
mighty Saviour.  To  fear  God  and  keep  His  com- 
mandments we  must  have  a  spiritual  power 
within  us.  That  power  Christ  supplies.  To 
them  that  have  no  might  he  increasetli  strength 
Without  Him  we  can  do  nothing.  But  we  can 
do  all  things  through  Christ  strengthening  us — 
strengthening  us  from  within  by  the  power  of  his 
spirit. 

Here  we  reach  rock  bottom,  obedience  to 
Christ,  through  the  power  of  Christ,  by  faith  in 
Christ.  Thus  and  thus  only  can  we  fear  God 
and  keep  His  commandments.  Thus  and  thus 
only  can  we  become  whole  men. 

Your  personal  relation  to  Christ  then  becomes 
a  matter  of  tremendous  moment.  Will  you  not 
thoughtfully  consider  that  relation  to-day,  as  you 


20 

turn  your  backs  upon  your  boyhood  and  look 
forth  to  the  Hfe  that  lies  before  you  ?  Years  ago 
Dr.  H.  A.  Boardman  wrote  a  little  book  entitled 
"The  Great  Question."  On  reading  that  title 
one  naturally  wonders  what  the  great  question 
is,  and  when  he  looks  within  he  finds  it  to  be 
only  this — "will  you  consider  the  subject  of 
personal  religion  ?"  That  is  the  great  question. 
Will  you}  If  you  will  then  you  can  answer  that 
other  great  question — What  is  the  whole  of  man  ? 
Otherwise  you  cannot, 

VII. 

What  is  the  whole  of  man  ?  Money,  answers 
the  average  American,  as  he  bows  before  the 
Almighty  Dollar.  No,  says  Solomon,  I  have 
tried  that.  What  is  the  whole  of  man  ?  Cul- 
ture, says  the  apostle  of  literary  dilletanteism — 
to  know  the  best  that  has  been  said  and  done. 
No,  says  Solomon,  I  have  tried  that.  What  is 
the  whole  of  man?  Power,  says  the  votary  of 
ambition.  Place,  says  the  political  demagogue. 
Sensual  enjoyment,  says  the  epicurean,  let  us 
eat  and  drink  for  to-morrow  we  die. 

Even  Thomas  Carlyle  with  all  his  pessimism 
and  doubt  knew  better  than  that.  After  sailing 
over  all  the  seas  of  human  speculation  and 
sounding  all  the  depths  of  worldly  philosophy, 
he  wrote  at  the  close  of  life  this  conclusion : 
"The  older  I  grow,  and  I  now   stand   upon    the 


21 

brink  of  eternity,  the  more  comes  back  to  me 
the  sentence  in  the  catechism  which  I  learned 
when  a  child,  and  the  fuller  and  deeper  its 
meaning  becomes — "  What  is  the  chief  end  of 
man  ?  Man's  chief  end  is  to  glorify  God  and  to 
enjoy  Him  forever."  Carlyle  was  right.  Sol- 
m on  was  right.  God  is  right.  Nothing  but  the 
eternal  God  and  His  service  can  satisfy  the 
cravings  and  aspirations  of  the  immortal  soul. 
And  so,  gentlemen,  I  make  no  apology  for  pre- 
senting as  the  subject  of  your  Baccalaureate 
meditation  this  great  truth  concerning  the  per- 
fect manhood  and  the  method  of  its  attainment. 
I  make  no  apology  for  urging  upon  each  of  you 
the  consideration  of  your  personal  relation  to  the 
Saviour  of  sinners  who  alone  can  make  of  you  a 
whole  man. 

When  the  sufferings  of  the  late  Senator  Benja- 
min H.  Hill  of  Georgia,  were  ended  a  few  years 
ago  by  death  and  his  will  was  opened  and  read, 
it  was  found  to  contain  at  the  close  the  following 
passage : 

"I  now  give  and  bequeath  to  my  wife  and 
children  that  which  someof  them  already  possess 
and  which  I  assure  them,  in  full  view  of  death,  is 
far  richer  than  gold  and  more  precious  than  all 
human  honors.  God  is  a  living  God  and  Christ 
Jesus  came  into  the   world  to   save   sinners.     I 


22 

beseech  them  to  have  faith  in  Christ,  for  by  this 
faith  alone  can  they  be  saved." 

That  was  the  richest  legacy  ever  left  by  a 
father  to  a  family  ;  and  that  was  a  noble  testi- 
mony of  Senator  Hill  to  the  preciousness  and 
power  of  the  religion  of  Christ.  It's  the  best 
thing  to  live  by.  It's  the  best  thing  to  die  by. 
It's  the  one  thing  needful  in  life.  It's  the  one 
thing  needful  in  death.  It's  the  one  thing  need- 
ful in  eternity.  Ben  Hill  spoke  many  a  word  in 
his  eloquent  prime  which  thrilled  the  great  pop- 
ular heart  of  his  country,  but  he  never  said  a 
truer  or  grander  thing  than  that. 

And  to-day,  young  gentlemen,  as  you  stand  on 
the  dividing  line  between  academic  life  and  the 
practical  duties  of  manhood — on  behalf  of  all 
these  people  of  God  who  have  assembled  to  tes- 
tify their  interest  in  your  graduation,  on  behalf 
of  the  president  and  faculty  of  this  venerable  in- 
stitution who  are  profoundly  solicitous  for  your 
welfare,  on  behalf  of  all  the  good  of  every  age, 
and  in  the  name  of  our  Redeemer  and  King — I 
would  urge  upon  you  that  exhortation  of  the 
dying  statesman — "I  beseech  you  have  faith  in 
Christ"  Give  him  your  heart.  Make  Him  your 
model.  Live  for  His  glory.  Trust  in  His 
righteousness.  "Fear  God  and  keep  His  com- 
mandments for  this  is  the  whole  man." 


23 

Is  not  this  an  ideal  worthy  to  be  realized  in 
any  man's  life  ?  Is  not  this  a  dream  worthy  to 
be  carved  in  any  man's  career  ? 

Chisel  in  hand  stood  a  sculptor  boy, 
With  his  marble  block  before  him, 

And  his  face  lit  up  with  a  smile  of  joy, 
As  an  angel  dream  passed  o'er  him. 

He  carved  it  then  on  the  yielding  stone, 
.    With  many  a  sharp  incision; 
His  face  with  heavenly  beauty  shone — 
He  had  caught  that  augel  vision. 

Sculptors  of  life  are  you,  as  you  stand, 
With  yoiir  lives  uncarved  before  you. 

Waiting  the  hour  wheu  at  God's  command, 
Your  life  dream  passes  o'er  you. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  this  message  which  I 
bring  you  from  the  word  of  the  Lord  to-day  ? 
Is  not  this  the  life  dream  that  He  would  have 
you  carve  in  your  future  career? 

May  you  carve  it  then  on  the  yielding  stone, 

With  man}'  a  sharp  incision  — 
Its  heavenly  beauty  shall  be  3'our  own, 

Your  lives  that  augel  vision. 


